Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program
The Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) degree program enables individuals to pursue interdisciplinary studies at the graduate level. Courses provide participants the opportunity to extend the best experiences of baccalaureate liberal education to the graduate level.
Students admitted to the program will be encouraged to select one of the graduate certificate programs or informal focus areas listed below and will develop a program of study with the cooperation of the assigned adviser.
- Bioethics (graduate certificate)
- Black Studies (graduate certificate or informal focus area)
- Film and Media Studies (informal focus area)
- Gerontology (graduate certificate)
- Humanities Consortium (informal focus area)
- Medieval and Early Modern Studies (graduate certificate)
- Religious Studies (informal focus area)
- Teaching Writing (graduate certificate)
- Women’s and Gender Studies (informal focus area)
Please refer to the Program of Study Worksheets under "Program Resources" in the right-hand side bar for help in selecting courses for each of the informal focus areas and graduate certificate programs.
Alternatively, students with a strong interest in a different interdisciplinary area of study within the College of Arts and Sciences may submit a statement indicating interest in designing an individualized plan of study. In order to ensure that courses to support a proposed individualized plan of study are available at UMKC, students who want to pursue this option should suggest a list of courses offered in the College of Arts and Sciences that could contribute to their desired area of study. Students wishing to pursue this option should contact the MALS adviser for assistance in developing this list of courses.
Student diplomas will list the degree as a Master of Arts in Liberal
Studies. The subject field of approved graduate certificates will be
designated on a student transcript. Students pursuing informal focus areas
with the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies will not have these subject
designations on their transcript.
The end result of each participant's matriculation should be a challenging experience that samples the richness of literature, the fine arts, history and those principles of the social and natural sciences that affect our lives.